Compare And Contrast Virginia And New England Colonies

Although bound by common tongue and devotion to England, by the eighteenth century, colonists began to evolve into two distinctive societies of New England and the Chesapeake area due to economical and social differences as well as their respective reasons for colonizing North America. They became well-adapted to their regions and built their societies based on certain circumstances and conditions in order to survive and prosper in North America.

During the 1700's, people in the American colonies lived in very distinctive societies. While some colonists led hard lives, others were healthy and prosperous. The two groups who showed these differences were the colonists of the New England and Chesapeake Bay areas. The differentiating characteristics among the Chesapeake and New England colonies developed due to economy, religion, and motives for colonial expansion. The colonists of the New England area possessed a very happy and healthy life. This high way of living was due in part to better farming, a healthier environment, and a high rate of production because of more

New England consisted of Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, and New Hampshire. While the southern colonies were Maryland, Virginia, South Carolina and Georgia. Even though both of them were in the New World they differ religiously, economically, socially and politically. Both, New England and Southern colonies, made an impact on the development of culture.

The Virginia and Massachusetts colonies had many differences that initially separated them, however, they eventually united to gain independence from Britain. Virginia and Massachusetts were united by their mutual distaste of British Parliament, the fear that they were both going to be forced under Britain’s control, and the craving for a society of equal individuals. In the 1700s, the Virginia and Massachusetts’s colonies (besides the fact that they were both British settlements) had very little in common. From the size of the African slave population to how they earned money the colonies had many differences. In Virginia the citizens mainly planted tobacco, but in Massachusetts, the people earned money by fishing or building ships. The slave population in Virginia was also much lower than that of Massachusetts. In New England the life expectancy was 60 years of age however in the Chesapeake life expectancy was 45. Another major difference between the colonies was the literacy rates among white males. In Virginia the literacy rate was 60%, however, in Massachusetts, the literacy rate was a high 85%. Massachusetts and Virginia also had opposite approaches to attaining independence. After the many acts Britain passed, Massachusetts proactively foresaw the issue and threat to their liberty and responded aggressively. Virginia on the other hand only reacted to the British threat once they were directly targeted by the John Murray’s Dunmore’s Proclamation.

Creating a New World has to start somewhere, even if it means it began separated between three different colonies. The New England colonies included Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Connecticut, it was established in the early 1620’s by a religious group, the Puritans.The southern colonies included Maryland, Virginia, Georgia, South Carolina, and North Carolina, Virginia was the first successful Southern colony and was established in the early 16th century. These colonies shared their similarities but also had a lot of differences.

Most colonies had a powerful royal governor appointed by the King of England. These royal governors often held massive power, being able to do things that even the king could not do, such as vetoing legislation and dismissing judges. They also served as the military commander for their province. In most colonies, adult, white, and land-owning males were permitted to vote in elections. The New England colonies’ governments were dominated by religion. They followed a unique form of church government known as congregationalism, where the people, known as the saints, pledged to follow God’s law. In the Middle colonies, a document called Duke’s Laws guaranteed religious toleration and created local governments. The colonies had Councils and Assemblies that gathered to initiate legislation. In the Southern colonies, one of the first representative-style governments was created. The House of Burgesses was created in 1619 in Virginia by Sir Edwin Sandys, and was created mostly to make the colony more attractive to wealthy

Although both the New England Colonies (Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and New Hampshire), and the Chesapeake Colonies (Virginia and Maryland) were both settled by people of English origin, by 1700 they were both very distinct for a multitude of reasons; Three of which being, their economics, African Slave population, and their life expectancies.

During the 17th and 18th century, English residents felt that England was over-crowded and intolerable. They wanted to lessen these problems that rose up because of the large population increase and to establish more religious freedom (Horn). The English believed that the best way to go about this was to colonize the New World. Subsequently, many colonies began to develop, and of these colonies, Massachusetts Bay and Virginia were the most well-known. The early settlements of Massachusetts and Virginia were both established by similar groups of people at the same time; furthermore, their contrasting beginnings as a colony, views on religion, and method of economic stability all contributed to our American heritage today.

Some of the most populous colonies were the ones situated in the Chesapeake and New England areas. Although these colonies were both settled by the English and had other key similarities, there were also many differences between them. The New England and Chesapeake colonies both had an aristocracy that governed over them, and had frequent issues concerning the Native Americans that previously inhabited the lands. However, their political and economic systems were considerably different. Chesapeake had an oligarchy whose main export was tobacco, while New England had a theocracy whose exports included timber, fur, and fish. Therefore, although the colonies had similarities their differences outweighed the resemblances.

During the late 16th century and into the 17th century, two colonies emerged from England in the New World. The two colonies were called the Chesapeake and New England colonies. Even though the two areas were formed and governed by the English, the colonies had similarities as well as differences. Differences in geography, religion, politics, economic, and nationalities, were responsible for molding the colonies. These differences came from one major factor: the very reason the English settlers came to the New World. 
The Chesapeake colonies were primarily created by companies interested in profiting from the natural resources of the New World such as gold or silver to bring back to England. The New England colonies were primarily created to escaped religious persecution and set up a haven for people of their faith. The inhabitants of the New England area were far healthier. Their clean water supply was a sharp contrast to the contaminated waters of Chesapeake Bay. The cool climate had a good impact on colonists because it prevented the spread of life-threatening diseases. Because of New England’s cool climate, many people died during severe winters. Chesapeake’s climate had positive and negative factors as well. The warm, moist climate in the Chesapeake colonies carried diseases that killed many of the colonists. In contrast to the New England colonists, the Chesapeake colonists did not have to worry as much about surviving cold winters. The natural resources of the

During the 17th and 18th centuries, many English colonists settled into colonies in America, otherwise known as the “New World”. There were many reasons to do so, whether it be for economic benefit or to avoid religious persecution. These original 13 colonies began developing fast with the help from the English, growing population wise and government wise. Two specific areas included the New England and Chesapeake colonies. The Chesapeake colonies included Maryland and Virginia, while the colonies of New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Connecticut, and the Massachusetts Bay colony were part of the New England colonies. These two colonial societies shared a few similarities regarding the development of their religion and economy, they also had a few differences.

When the British first set out to colonize America, they were expecting their colonies to be similar, even uniform in extreme cases. However, they quickly realised that this would be a difficult task to accomplish, if not impossible all together. Not only were the colonists vastly different, depending on where and when they came from, but the continent was so vast and the land varied so much that what worked for one colony would ensure the fall of another. This caused the colonists to adapt different ways of life depending on where they lived in America, due to the variance in land types..

The English colonies had different political structure, population size, and reasons for colonizing in the New World. Although the colonists were all British descent, their societies were completely dissimilar. Some ultimately left power in the hands of the church while others became royal colonies where the governor holds control. Northern colonies had a population that was not as spread out as the other colonies in the New World. And finally, those who ventured over from the Old World were either persecuted or wanted to expand Britain’s empire. These differences eventually lead to the development of distinct societies.

d) The early colonies in Virginia and Massachusetts experienced some similarities in the conditions, challenges, and ways of life. Both colonies were in constant fear of Native Americans, who perhaps had a hostile attitude towards the colonists because of how tribes were treated by explorers in the past. Captain John Smith suggests that he was the one keeping the Native Americans from seriously harming the colonists of Virginia. However, Smith returned to England after a couple of years in America and wrote of events that were told to him secondhand, “For the savages [Indians] no sooner understood Smith was gone but they all revolted, and did spoil and murder all they encountered ....

The New England colonies were situated along the upper northeastern side of the states ( Maine, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Plymouth, and Connecticut) while the Chesapeake colonies were more down south (Virginia, Maryland etc). New England colonists had a longer life expectancy than their Chesapeake counterparts because of geographical reasons and harsh winters. Chesapeake colonies had very little diversity in the kind of people it brought over many were young men ranging in their 20s to 30s and a few aristocrats. New England settlers came over in family groups had a wide range of people from young children to old men and women. Slavery though not as prominent in the New England colonies was a saving grace in the Chesapeake colonies who used